Saturday, May 17, 2025: The Sacred Feminine -- Our Lady of Guadalupe

 

Listen. Put it into your heart, my youngest and dearest son, that the thing that frightened you, the thing that afflicted you is nothing: Do not let it disturb you…. Am I not here, I, who am your mother?

Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need something more? 

—Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego, Nican Mopohua  

Father Richard Rohr shares the history of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a profound image of the divine feminine, an archetype of maternal love and protection.   

In 1531, exactly ten years after the Spanish conquest of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico, there was an unprecedented constellation of signs we call the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This miraculous event linked the heavens of Catholic Spain and the mythologies of the Indigenous Americans who had lost everything: their land, their freedom, and their gods. Like all ongoing revelation, it has taken us over four hundred years to begin to unravel the depth of loving mystery that was revealed in this encounter between the dear heavenly woman with brown skin (La Morenita) and Juan Diego, a poor Indigenous man. 

God speaks through the “Mother of the true God through whom one lives,” whom the Spanish called María. But she is dressed in the clothes of the Indians, speaks their Nahuatl language and calls Juan Diego, one of the poorest, to “repreach” the gospel back to the Spanish colonizers who thought they had the gospel in the first place. In one generation, under this mother symbol, almost all of the native peoples of Mexico accepted Christianity. 

People of Indigenous and Spanish ancestry (mestizos) were born, and I might say a new mestizo Christianity unfolds. We are slowly learning that there is no other kind of Christianity. Christ takes on the face and features of all people, whoever they are and no matter their circumstances. In this case God knew that the face and features had to be feminine and compassionate. No other sign could transform both the Spanish machisimo and the matriarchal religion of the Indians at the same time. [1] 

Mirabai Starr describes the ongoing legacy of Our Lady of Guadalupe:  

In a world struggling against senseless violence and growing economic disparity, Our Lady of Guadalupe offers a distinctly feminine antidote to the poisons of poverty and war. Where society demands competition, Guadalupe teaches cooperation. In place of consumerism, she models compassionate service….

She is the radical, powerful, engaged Mother of the People. 

Our Lady is not merely a sociopolitical symbol, however. People of all faiths call her Mother. In times of deeply personal grief, they turn to her for comfort. They turn to her for insight. They turn to her for a reminder of what matters most, what endures when all else seems to be lost, what grace may yet be available when we meet fear with love.

Dear friends, blessings of Christ’s peace!
 

     Next week's episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with my friend Maria Stephan, teacher, advocate, and organizer, who has dedicated her life to the proposition that ordinary people, when organized and inspired, can bring about extraordinary change. She is the co-author with Erica Chenoweth of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, one of the most important books in decades, which documents how nonviolent resistance campaigns over the last century have been twice as effective as armed struggles, and been major drivers of democratization and civil peace.

    “On the one hand, we have more regimes taking away rights and abusing power;” she says, “but on the other, there's an explosion of nonviolent campaigns and mass mobilizations of ordinary people around the world.”

     Maria works with www.Horizonsproject.us focusing on the role of nonviolent action and peacebuilding in advancing human rights, democracy, and sustainable peace in the US and globally. Before joining Horizons, Maria founded and directed the Program on Nonviolent Action at the U.S. Institute of Peace, overseeing global programming, applied research, and policy engagement. She was the lead foreign affairs officer in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, and also worked at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. She has taught at Georgetown University and American University.

     “Nonviolent resistance is a skilled based activity; you can learn how to do better and how to build broad-based coalitions… We need to think big, both globally and locally. We need a more interconnected ‘movement of movements.’ We need to change the popular consciousness so that movements and campaigns are seen as a cool form of activity.” Hope you are inspired by Maria Stephan to do your part to keep the movement of Gospel nonviolence moving!

God bless everyone!—Fr. John

*The podcast episodes are posted on Mondays, right away on NCR, Apple, Spotify, and many other major platforms, and will get posted to our website between 8am-9am PST.